Derek McDowell (Labour)

When a person is injured at work, he or she does not appreciate that liability is an issue in many cases. Many people do not realise that we have a fault based system which requires a person to establish that the employer or someone driving a car is at fault before he or she can recover money for injuries sustained. Many people do not know such basic facts which we take for granted. To say, as the Minister has said in such a dismissive fashion, that a medical report or advice is the only thing that matters is ignoring a serious level of ignorance among the public about their rights in certain circumstances and about the nature of our compensation system.